Undeclared: Undeclared, #1

By Maxine Millar

So what should they do? The occupation of New Zealand's Parliament grounds brings in fresh theories and suggestions, just as Covid finally escapes from the quarantine hotels and rages through NZ. But by now it is Omicron. Seven people in one flat, unvaxed, vaxed and boosted, all sick regardless, seek answers but have only question. What should they do? What is the true reality among all the misinformation and disinformation?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maxine Millar
• Release date: Jul 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005274955

Maxine Millar

Maxine lives in New Zealand, on a life style block. She now writes full time.

Book preview

Chapter One

Wellington New Zealand, December 19th 2021

Summer winced, as Petra stormed out and slammed the door. It seemed to her that these days every ‘discussion’ ended like that. It was just an injection. What was the big deal? Yeah, right. She picked up the pages Petra had flung at her and started to read. Then decided she didn’t want to know and put the document down. She tried to think this was ridiculous. She tried to think that what Petra had written made no sense. She didn’t succeed. She tried again, reading a little more. As if the whole world would conspire over this thing. Well, most of the world. Most of the world couldn’t agree on anything. So why were most countries agreeing here? But for Petra, that wasn’t the problem. Problems. The first problem was that she was extremely distressed about the announcement that children from five to eleven could be vaccinated from 17th January 2022. That threatened the children she had taught. Her children.

The second problem was the government Mandates. Specifically, the one on teachers. All government workers had to be double vaccinated now to keep their jobs. Soon, it was going to be triple vaccinated. Teachers were government workers. Petra was resisting. She had resigned. That left her with no income. She hadn’t worked since November 15th, nearly a month ago. Her career might be over if the Mandates continued.

So did she expect her flatmates to pay her share of the rent and the expenses? Summer shook herself; that was selfish. Of course, they would help her. They’d been friends and flatmates for six years! But her career. Petra had spent years studying to be a teacher and she loved the job. The job she had just lost. She had had until January 15th 2022 to get both jabs. The first jab had to given by 15th November. Petra had resigned instead. There was nothing Summer could do to help. Petra had to figure this out by herself. She put the jug on as a voice behind her said,

Is it safe to come out?

Summer smiled at Abby, Yes, she’s gone.

What are we going to do about the rent?

So Abby was on the same wavelength. I don’t know. I can afford to pay her share for a while, but I’m not doing it forever. She’ll have to try to get another job. Her vaccination status might make that very difficult.

Maybe we should do a deal, Abby suggested. She does all the housework and gardening and lives here free. With four of us to pay her share, we’ll cope.

Now that was a thought. They all hated housework and ignored the gardening. Summer smiled; that was a brilliant thought. I can keep the overtime up for a while.

Is there much?

No, but there will be if Omicron gets out of the quarantine hotels.

The news keeps saying that’s inevitable. Is that true?

Yes, with Covid flying in by the planeload. But don’t panic. Omicron is mild for most people. You have no pre-existing conditions, you’ll be fine. We all will.

"But I don’t understand… well quite a lot, I guess. I don’t understand how a vaccine developed for Delta, or whichever it was developed for, will help with Omicron. Isn’t that wrong? Scientifically I mean?

I don’t know but I think so. My patients keep asking questions like that and I’m told to assure them, via the party line that it will work.

Will it?

I don’t know. Probably not.

So why lie?

Because I want to keep my job! Summer snapped.

Abby stayed quiet as she watched a scowling Summer slam the coffee mug down and throw coffee into it. Silently, she made her own coffee and sat down beside Summer at the table built into the window seat. She looked out at the garden. That was a mistake. She looked at Summer; a much nicer sight. She envied Summer’s long black hair. Hers was blonde but short. It just would not grow long. It split. What’s really wrong? She watched as Summer was obviously upset.

I think Petra’s right. Partly, at least. There’re all these weird problems people are coming in with. Not just the heart attacks, strokes, Myocarditis and Endocarditis, but real bizarre stuff. Yesterday I saw a man with a bad skin rash. He’s adamant he’s ‘not the allergic sort,’ hasn’t done anything differently and works in an office. I prescribed him something for it but it’s extensive and its aetiology is unexplained. I gave him some literature to try to find out the cause but I think he told me the cause. Except I’m discouraged, shall we say, from writing it down. Or enquiring in the first place. And I’m not allowed to tell you any of this.

Let me guess. He’s recently had the booster?

Yes. He’s angry. He didn’t want a booster and he didn’t want any vaccine in the first place. He told me he’s never had the flu in his life and he’s a fitness buff. But he has a wife and a mortgage. His wife is in exactly the same position. Neither have a choice. Their mortgage is reliant on both of them working. He’s only in his thirties. He said they bought the house three years ago before all this chaos happened and both he and his wife are out of options. Our staff are talking. Dangerous to our jobs if anyone overhears us and gets nasty. The trouble is, you don’t know who you can trust.

I read the official pharmacy site. Petra made me. Their list of side effects of the vaccine is truly scary. I’m sure almost no one reads it. When I mention anything about adverse effects, everyone at work looks at me like I’m a conspiracy theorist. But its official, its open, its acknowledged.

It’s also incomplete, played down and that’s being nice. They didn’t do those studies for long enough. What’s going to happen long term?

You mean it’s worse than the site says?

Yes. Possibly much worse. And people are told none of this. They’re told it’s safe.

Are you saying it isn’t?

Yes. But to what extent, I don’t know. I don’t know the incidence of serious adverse effects. It’s hard to work out the percentage of those that get sick, those that have no reaction and those who get a mild reaction because we never see those last two cases. We only see the serious symptoms and if people are not employed, sometimes not even then. So much is being hidden. Usually, when a vaccine or any treatment has too many adverse effects, it’s pulled off the market and reporting of adverse effects is encouraged. I think the normal limit is that fifty deaths world-wide gets it pulled off the market. Suspended and investigated. That’s a joke with this one. Here, the opposite to full reporting is the case. The adverse effects are being hidden. Most of these people should be able to claim for injuries, but you need a doctor to agree that the vaccine is the most likely cause, to get a claim considered. That’s not happening. Proof is the problem. No one can prove what caused what.

Does Petra know you know all this?

No and I don’t dare tell her. She’s joined an underground group and I’m scared she’ll mention something I say. I could lose my job.

Abby swirled her coffee dregs, thinking. Petra was the only one with any options. The only one with her student debt paid and no other debts. She shuddered to think what Summer owed for doctor training. She herself still owed over thirty-eight thousand dollars and owned nothing except her precious cell phone and laptop. But her maths degree had landed her the financial analyst job she loved. She sighed, the cost of her degree had left her in colossal debt, now mostly paid after four years of a good wage, thrifty living and two jobs.

I’m going to put off the booster as long as I can she said. I keep hoping they’ll drop the Mandates."

What angers me, said Summer, Is the way our lovely Prime Minister assumes that everyone has the vaccine because they want to. Not because they are forced to. How many people can afford to lose their jobs? I feel like she has a shotgun to my head, while smiling at me. My father says Prime Minister Robert Muldoon was described as a dictator but she leaves him at the starting blocks.

Forget politics. How bad are the chances of a bad reaction? What’s this thing done to us?

No idea. There’s no statistics and at work we’re not supposed to write anything down. So it can’t be known now, or even be captured later.

So who would know?

No one. How can anyone find out when it’s all covered up?

Statistics NZ will show if there is an increased death rate.

Yes, but remember, because of Lockdowns, border closures and health measures, there was almost no influenza last year and the year before. Flu normally kills over five hundred people a year. Other disease causes were also probably lessened by Lockdowns and far more health precautions than usual, while vaccine deaths took their place.

So the actual death toll might be the same but the reasons different?

Not officially, but in reality, probably yes.

Yes, I get that. So how will this be proved? How can it be?

Summer deliberated, Through sickness, not death. There are a lot more cases of diseases like Myocarditis and Endocarditis than normal and that can be statistically proved. It will take a bit more research because you’d then have to check with the patient to find out when they had the vaccine. Miscarriages seem to be increased but since we are ‘discouraged’ from asking patients about the vaccine, again, nothing can be proved. One of the things that’s driving me crazy is that when you make a diagnosis, you are supposed to include all relevant data.

But with the vaccine excluded…

Yes. The prime suspect politically excluded, so to speak. It’s driving me nuts!

Abby heard the agony in Summer’s voice. Her own job was unaffected. The only impact for her was the vaccine and the fact that she now worked at least half the week from home. All of it if she could, in fact. A distinct advantage, she thought. It saved her money she would otherwise have spent on transport and lunches and crucially it saved her time. It also saved her the continual interruptions at work; the phone, chatter, noisy colleagues, long, boring, business meetings etc. Lockdowns and working from home were a gift for her. She got more work done.

Summer looked directly at Abby, "I heard an interesting story last night. A man was brought into my Accident and Emergency ward by a friend. He was pretty sick with multiple symptoms like dizziness and breathlessness in a young man. Of most concern was his irregular heart-beat. His friend had a fascinating story to tell. The two of them had been homeless. They were picked up one day by two men who put a deal to them. They offered them $1,000 cash each, for having two doses of the vaccine in the name of these other men. They thought that was a great deal so they did. The men then put them onto other men who